The decision comes after just 14 months of Tillerson’s tenure, though rumors that policy disagreements between the former Exxon CEO and the president could lead to his termination have circulated since November. This is the latest in a series of high profile departures from the administration, which has the highest turnover rate of any White House in the last 40 years.

Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!

The incoming Secretary of State is less wealthy than his predecessor and has been successful in maintaining the president’s trust thus far. Here’s what you need to know about America’s new top diplomat.

Pompeo’s background and career

Pompeo is a former Army tank officer. He graduated first in his class from West Point.

He attended law school at Harvard and worked in Washington, D.C. practicing law before founding an aerospace company called Thayer Aerospace. He then worked as the president of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment manufacturing, distribution, and service company.

He served three terms in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017. As a representative, he sat on the House Intelligence Committee and played an aggressive role in questioning former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as part of the House Select Benghazi Committee.

As the top U.S. diplomat, his view on the Iran nuclear deal will match up with the president’s more closely than his predecessor’s. He is expected to take a harder line on Iran and North Korea. Administration officials said that the decision to fire Tillerson now was motivated in part by installing Pompeo ahead of the proposed meeting between North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and President Trump.

He spends more time in the White House than other recent CIA directors and is perceived as more willing to take a role in policy battles, going so far as to defend the president in the wake of his comments on Charlottesville and make calls to news organizations to dispute a New York Times article about connections between Russians and individuals involved in the Trump campaign.

Gina Haspel is said to replace Pompeo as CIA director

Pompeo will be replaced, after a Senate confirmation, by deputy director Gina Haspel at the CIA. Haspel will be the first woman to assume the top role at the agency, where she has worked since 1985.

She is widely respected within the agency and has received the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism, the Donovan Award, the Intelligence Medal of Merit, and the Presidential Rank Award, the highest award in the federal civil service.

Pompeo’s net worth

While former Exxon CEO Tillerson assumed the Secretary of State role with a retirement package from the oil industry worth $180 million, Pompeo will take over with a $185,000 salary from the CIA director position.